


The End of All Things

by Jade4813



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-01 22:26:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13304616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade4813/pseuds/Jade4813
Summary: Eventually, even Barry Allen and Iris West must die. Their love, however, will last forever.





	The End of All Things

He couldn’t say exactly what had awoken him, but the first thing Barry saw when he opened his eyes was the picture on his nightstand – his favorite from their wedding day. He’d just scooped Iris into his arms when she complained about her aching feet, and the photographer caught the moment that he bowed his head to press a soft kiss against her forehead, just as she laughingly reached to adjust his tie. She was just as beautiful to him now as she was then, but that moment caught her as he always remembered her best: full of life, laughter, and love.

Under the sheets, he stretched slightly, mentally taking stock. An old familiar twinge in his joints greeted him; even speedsters couldn’t entirely run away from the effects of old age. The dull ache in his chest was new, but for the moment, he pushed it away and refused to consider what it meant. With a soft groan, he stretched again, working out some kinks. Then, unable to escape the inevitable, he turned towards his wife.

The moment he saw her, he knew. She was laying on her side, facing him, her legs curled up and one hand resting under her cheek. She looked so calm and peaceful, lying there so still. Too still.

In truth, he’d known before he’d even turned to look at her. This morning was so like every other, but for that pain in his chest. The connection they shared, the love that tethered them together even through the speed force, had become such a part of him for so long that it was notable now by its absence. “Oh, Iris,” he moaned, leaning forward to brush a kiss against her soft curls. “You weren’t supposed to go first.” The lightning that so often sparked between them was gone.

Though he was tempted to linger, he knew what he had to do. It pressed against him with an urgency he couldn’t ignore. Blinking back his tears and turning away, he rose into a sitting position and stretched one more time before rising to his feet. He could get through this as long as he didn’t think about his loss, and so he focused instead on the mundane details of getting dressed. He took a long look around the room as he pulled on some clothes, his eyes lingering on the mementoes of the life he and Iris had shared. Old photographs and scraps of paper. Her most comfortable sweater – worn most nights, as she grew cold easily – thrown over the back of a chair. A hair tie had fallen off her nightstand onto the floor. He paused and lifted the picture taken the previous Christmas, taking the image in. In it, he and Iris were sitting in front of an absurdly large tree, flanked by their children (the twins still mischievous, even as adults), grandchildren, as well as Wally, Linda, and their children.

He stroked a finger down the image of Iris’s cheek. When he heard the soft sob that escaped his lips, he had to pause a moment to pull himself together. It took him longer than usual to tie his shoes, he fingers, swollen with arthritis, shaking. Then he stood and moved to his wife’s side. His vision blurred as he swooped and pulled her into his arms, lifting her as easily as he had on their wedding day. Her hand fell into her lap and her head rested against his chest as he adjusted his hold. “It’s all right, Iris. I’ve got you,” he said, but his voice broke off with another soft sob.

Sucking in a deep breath, Barry tilted his head back and blinked, trying to clear the tears from his eyes. They would see each other again. Then, holding Iris’s body even tighter, he started to run. The wind flying past his face whipped his tears away.

It had been a long time since he’d run fast enough to go into the speed force, and for a moment, he was afraid old age and grief would prevent him from gaining the necessary speed. However, perhaps it was pity or the love it shared for Iris, when Barry reached for the speed force, it reached back. As it drew him in, he saw images flicker past – past, present, and future. He saw him and Iris as they were when they met. The gangly awkward phase they’d gone through as teenagers. Iris, breathtaking at senior prom.

He saw her in front of a Christmas tree years before, hugging him in her blue and white shirt as he confessed his feelings to her. Their first kiss. Him kneeling in front of her ask he asked her to be his wife. An image of their wedding flickered past, the tear on her cheek as they leaned forward to share their kiss as man and wife.

He saw her pregnant with the twins, then holding their children for the first time. The twins as toddlers, with the odd, top-heavy stumble of children learning to take their first steps. The day they discovered their own speed powers for the first time. The gangly awkwardness of their own teenage years, so reminiscent of their parents. He saw them on their wedding days, when Iris and Barry both cried happy tears. He saw the birth of their grandchildren, when he and Iris stood and marveled at all the miracles their life together had brought.

He saw other things, too. Joe, as he was the day he took in a little boy who had just lost his parents. The day he married again. His pride on the day he was promoted to captain. His last day in the hospital, and the moment he slipped away.

Barry saw the friends they had made and lost over the years. Eddie, Cisco, Jesse, and Caitlin. Hal, Diana, Bruce, Clark, and so many others. All of this raced past him faster than a heartbeat, and then he was pulled into the speed force and the images faded.

“Barry, are you sure?” the speed force wore his father’s face and asked gently. He was glad it hadn’t taken the form of the woman he held in his arms. He would have resented the lie in that moment.

“It’s time,” he said with a nod. “I want to be with her.”

“You will be,” it promised, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

For the first time that morning, Barry smiled as he let go of the world outside. He felt the moment that the speed force wrapped itself around him and greeted him as an old friend, drawing him further in, and he sighed softly as he felt the connection he shared with all the other speedsters fall away. He’d always wondered if it would hurt, giving himself up to the speed force, but it didn’t. It was peaceful – warm and comforting. Or perhaps that was Iris’s laugh.

Barry looked down at the woman in his arms, and this time, she looked back. Her eyes twinkled with happiness; her face was as bright and youthful as it had been the day he proposed. When he looked at the hands that held her, he saw that they, too, were smooth and unlined.

“Iris, is it really you?” he asked, but in his heart, he already knew it was.

She nodded, and he put her on her feet, keeping her tight against his body. “I’m here,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around his neck. She brushed a kiss across his lips, and he felt that old, familiar spark arc between them. “I’m not going anywhere.” Barry grinned and spun her round, her laughter echoing with his own.

It was the last gift of the speed force, offering both speedster and lightning rod peace together for all eternity.


End file.
